Alamo Drafthouse LA Expansion In Works?

The upstart exhibitor has expanded its reach since launching in 1997, going from a single theater in Austin, Texas to a mini indie empire with 10 locations in Texas and additional outposts in Winchester, VA, Kansas City, MO, and Littleton, CO. But despite recent moves into San Francisco, Kalamazoo, the Washington DC area and New York, where three new locations are planned for Manhattan, Yonkers, and Brooklyn, Los Angeles has proven a tricky market for Drafthouse to break into. Today LA developer Saeed Farkhondehpour said that Drafthouse is this close to bringing a 30,000-square-foot eight-screen theater downtown where a parking lot currently sits. But reps for the exhibitor caution that ink hasn’t yet been put to paper on a deal. “We have had discussions but no formalized agreement”, an Alamo Drafthouse spokesperson told Deadline.
It would be LA’s first Drafthouse theater, but not the first prospective location owner and founder Tim League has looked at in the city. Drafthouse was one of a few companies looking at Westwood’s Avco last year, which ultimately went to luxury theater operator iPic. And the repertory/arthouse scene in LA is already a competitive space, with Cinefamily, the New Beverly, the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian and Aero Theaters, and the Downtown Independent drawing overlapping but disparate niche demos. Still, Drafthouse carries a certain cache with hardcore film buffs. The indie chain’s Austin headquarters have become a movie geek mecca where food and alcohol are served in-theater and a strict no-talking, no-texting policy is actually enforced unlike at most theaters in the country. (Their 2011 movie etiquette PSA made national news.) Meanwhile, its Drafthouse Films distribution arm (Four Lions, Bullhead, Pieta), founded in 2010, is just one of multiple spin-off companies helping fuel the brand.

Neither myself nor my friends, who would attend a Drafthouse event (and really wanted one here) would go if it’s downtown. Unsafe and dirty neighborhood, expensive parking and at least an hour travel time. If Hollywood or the San Fernando Valley, lets talk.

Gil Brooks • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Redline, my friend. And DT has cleaned up- A LOT.

Alex • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

I mean they have put up those flyers warning of the massive TB outbreak and the possible serial killer. That’s progress.

ac • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Seriously. Take a walk around. It has cleaned up a LOT. Regardless, I’d prefer if industry prisses stay out of my “hood.”

JoeS • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

4th & Main downtown?

I guess the loft lizards will love it, but, good luck getting anybody West of La Brea to show up (which just happens to be about 80% of the folks who’d be interested in attending)…..

Eastside • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

You must be referring to the white out-of-state transplants who don’t even know there is anything on the other side of La Brea…. so I guess that only leaves Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Atwater Village, Highland Park, Koreatown, Glendale, Pasadena, all of USC and the millions of others on the other side of Downtown to make up the difference.

kingdom • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Arclight > All

Cliff • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Not lately. Arclight has fallen far, far, far from the heights they established early on. They’ve been so preoccupied with branding and expanding that they have all but forgotten what made them great in the first place. Where texting and talking used to be the rarest of experiences, it’s hard to escape them now (even in Hollywood, where I almost exclusively go). When pressed if they would follow the Alamo’s lead of ZERO tolerance toward talkers and texters, they quickly ran and hid because they didn’t want to offend by taking a stand. Their presentation of 3D in the Dome is among the worst in the country, yet they continue to push it for the surcharges rather than strive for quality. I love Arclight. Been a member since they opened in 2002, but that concept doesn’t get much play anymore and is hardly better than any other multiplex now. I’m excited to see an Alamo up close.

Piper • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

I agree Cliff. Arclight was the standard but they lost their way. (and yes, their 3D in the Dome is regrettable at best) A downtown Drafthouse could work but let’s not be ridiculously naive – it’s still a John Carpenteresque part of town after midnight and no amount of insult-the-whites-swagger trumps the truth.

being a texas transplant for almost twenty years I am about to call myself an angeleno. Angelenos, wake up and smell a cinema experience. Alamo drafthouse is the shit.

Andrew • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

The theater where Woody Allen sees a Marx Brothers movie towards the end of “Hannah and Her Sisters” is at 100th and Broadway here in NYC has been closed for years… but has a banner that it’s becoming a Drafthouse in 2014. Thank God. The neighborhood is great but could really use a shot in the arm. I don’t know what to expect (never been to a Drafthouse) but it can’t be worse than it is now.. boarded up and closed.

sneetch • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

The westside whiners are in full force here.

robert b garant • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Please put an Alamo Draft House in LA, and Please do not put it downtown.

G. • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

You can go hang out at the Grove then. Downtown is kockass and anybody who isn’t a total pussy knows it’s where the best restaurants in LA are right now…

We have a winner • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Amen

G • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

‘Kickass’ – Damn iPhone!

Dr Know • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

G – I prefer the typo. I think you’re onto something!

Aggregator • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

I go to Austin Game Developers Conference every year, and while there I always made a 40-minute journey to go see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. When GDC was moved to Los Angeles this year, I was saddened. Then I read this today and was happy once more. I live in West Adams, and 4th & Main is way closer than either the ArcLight or the Landmark (my two closest good theaters… I can’t be bothered with The Regal even though it’s my closest theater). The Alamo is also way BETTER than any theater in LA (except that one in Pasadena that costs $150 for dinner and a movie). Let’s go, Alamo! When I lived in Burbank, it was worth it to drive to the ArcLight. Now that the ArcLight has fallen so low, you Valley dwellers will discover that it’s worth it to drive to downtown.

J • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Landmark leads the pack in LA.

Jon Dennington • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Good. Stay out ya chump.

PS • on Apr 10, 2013 5:59 pm

I was very excited to hear about the Alamo Drafthouse coming to Los Angeles until I saw that they were looking at downtown. While it is no longer a John Carpenter-esque wasteland, it is not a place I’m interested in visiting for a movie. I will go once because I’ve been dying to try the Alamo experience, but if it is not amazing, I will not return. It’s not worth it. I think they’d be advised to look at LA LIVE, which never lived up to the hype and didn’t transform downtown the way it was intended. Be warned, Alamo… if you build it, they will not necessarily come. I would strongly urge them to look elsewhere.

And you’d better be prepared to put in a garage. Because parking downtown is a joke.